With new support for additional federal funding, the largest ground-based astronomy project is unfolding in the high Chilean desert.

The $1 billion Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, will look as far back in time as 1 billion years after the Big Bang, producing a kind of astronomical baby book for researchers to peruse.

When completed about 2012, the array will allow astronomers to examine planet and star formation, the formation of early galaxies and galaxy clusters and the detection of organic and other molecules in space.

Formal planning for the project started in the 1990s with the Charlottesville-based National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Since then, it has been beset by a changing global economy and ballooning costs, issues peculiar to the site located 16,500 feet above sea level and international government bureaucracies. New partners have signed on, but the U.S. share is now $566 million.



Posted by: Edwin    Source